Food Services: Handy Facts
- Food service operations are among the most energy intensive in the commercial sector, accounting for 6 percent of all commercial energy consumption (DOE/EIA 2007).
- The industrial agriculture system contributes between 17% and 32% of all human induced greenhouse gas emissions (Bellarby 2008).
- Agricultural lands take up close to half the earth’s land surface at the cost of usable carbon sinks from natural vegetation (IPCC 2008).
- According to the EPA, food leftovers are the single largest component of the waste stream by weight in the United States (EPA 2008a).
- 4-10% of all purchased food ends up as preconsumer waste (LP 2008).
- A small leak of 0.2 gallons per minute can waste 100,000 gallons of water and $1,640 a year in water, sewer and gas costs (ES 2006).
- 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in the US are used as additives in livestock feed (Harvie 2006).
- Every year 1.7 to 2.2 million pounds of arsenic are given to chickens as a feed additive to promote growth (Wallinga 2006).
- In the US, solid waste from domesticated animals and enteric fermentation from cows are responsible for roughly 200 million metric tons of CO2e (DOE/EIA 2007).
- A common conventional food product travels an average of 1,500 miles before it reaches the plate (LCSA 2001).
 |
This work by the Responsible Purchasing Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. |
Feedback on this Guide
Please contact us with corrections, additions, policies, or questions.
Submit Feedback
a project of
